On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect?

Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

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I’m Waiting Because: (1) this sounds like my type of contemporary read, (2) this book kind of have that hype (and I have this bad habit of not wanting to miss a hyped book), (3) Mental illness? Death? Suicidal tendencies? Count me in!, (4) it sounds like a life changing book (or at least something that tackles one’s importance, value, etc.), (5) that cover is just so great! (not exactly my basis for wanting this book but simple yet beautiful covers are just so great to have)